There was enough praise in Portland City Council chambers to make a professional sports executive – or a city commissioner – blush when representatives of the Portland Timbers and Major League Soccer appeared before the council Wednesday morning, just hours before the 2014 MLS All-Star Game at Providence Park.

Dan Courtemanche, the MLS executive vice president who oversees communications and media relations, and Chris Metz, who holds a similar position with the Timbers, praised the city for its support of the game. Council members, in turn, took turns thanking Courtemanche and Metz and praising city employees who helped make All-Star events, which started Friday, an overwhelming success.

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The compliments were well-deserved on each side. As The Oregonian editorial board noted Sunday, the success of the All-Star week festivities reflect well on Portland. Our focus today is on what can be learned from the positive experience and how those lessons can be applied to weightier issues facing the city.

First, let's review why All-Star week was a success:

Roles were defined. The city played a supporting role where needed, but gave the Timbers and MLS freedom to operate in the manner that would best serve the team, league, fans and city residents.

The city and MLS made an effort to involve as much of the community as possible. Not everyone participated equally – only about 20,000 people could attend the game itself. But events, many of them free, were spread around the city – including free concerts at Waterfront Park and Pioneer Courthouse Square, open Bayern Munich practices at the University of Portland, a Community Day and field dedication at Montavilla Park, and All-Star youth events at the Tualatin Hills Parks & Recreation District soccer facility in Beaverton.

The city had adequate infrastructure to host the event. Portland probably could never host the Olympics – though some people still dream of that – and even the NBA has doubts about whether the city has enough hotel capacity to host its All-Star Game, but the MLS event was a perfect fit. From downtown parks, to soccer facilities at UP and THPRD to a downtown stadium served by light rail to an array of scenic venues for fan events, Portland had everything MLS could want. MLS even found adequate lodging capacity, though it did spread people around to seven different hotels.

"We hope this All-Star game signals to the world that when Portland rolls up its sleeves and says we're going to host a special event, we can do it as well as any city in the world," said Commissioner Nick Fish, who was the council's point person for All-Star planning. That would be a positive outcome, but we would like to set the bar a little higher. Wouldn't it be great if the MLS All-Star Game experience could be a turning point in showing that Portland really can be a "city that works?"

Admittedly, it's easier to host a soccer game and related festivities than to maintain almost 5,000 lane miles of streets, design a fair and adequate tax structure or fix a broken mental health system. But Fish acknowledged that the city did some things in preparing for the MLS festivities – expediting permits, empowering the right people, for example – that it doesn't always do. "Part of the takeaway from this is that you really have to pay attention to the details and build in the time to do the planning," Fish said.

More than anything, the past week showed the value of something that too often is lacking at City Hall: focus. Agree on a well-defined goal that has tangible benefits. Craft a plan that uses the expertise of the right people. Rally the city behind the plan. And follow through on the details.

If the City Council follows that formula, it should be able to score more important victories in the future.